Derby, Fitzroy Crossing, Geikie Gorge to Halls Creek

  31/08/2011
   Well we have finally cut loose from Broome, and in some ways glad to do so. We did originally plan to stay there for a month, not realising than the resident population of 1,500 suddenly increases to 50,000 during June, July and August. We have only ourselves to blame for not doing our homework properly.
  So here we are 250K north in Derby (sounds like Herby)  still in the heart of the Kimberly , top left hand corner of Oz!  This area is renowned for its’ Boab trees, bottle shaped main trunk with spindly  branches that remind us of triffids or aliens from Dr Who.  They grow to enormous diameters, over, they say, thousands of years, and are generally hollow. One of these trees was  used as an overnight prison for Aborigines who were being marched to Broome to be pressed into work as pearl divers or to work in the pearl industry. The Prisoner Tree is now a symbol of Aborigine culture.  …..well it would be wouldn’t it.
 Derby is a good base to use to visit the old drovers track, the Gibb River Road and Winjana Gorge We will have a look tomorrow.

 01/09/2011
  A disappointing day in some respects, mostly through misinformation. We drove out towards the Winjana Gorge some 140K’s away. Our map said it was a sealed road for just over 120K then dirt for the last bit.  After 80 K’s we ran out of tarmac. We have done our fair share of off road in the past but this proved 60K’s too far. We gave it a go but after nearly an hour we were getting shaken to bits and so gave up and turned round. There followed an hours discussion of how to kill a cartographer.
  There isn’t a lot to see and do in Derby, and we did most of it yesterday, the Prison Tree and the longest cattle trough in W A being the main attractions.  That left the Derby Wetlands ( behind and fed by the sewage plant) where we saw some reeds and a few ducks. Then there is the Jetty and the Pioneers Cemetery where lies a policeman who was “”killed by some blacks” That’s what it said on his headstone.  The jetty stretches out over crocodile infested mud flats, no swimming here and sees some of the highest tides in Australia.  Today it exceeded 11metres, a phenomenal amount of water.
  The best part of the day has been our good fortune to book an overnight trip to the Bungle Bungles next Tues/Wednesday. It’s a bush camping trip into the heart of the Kimberly, something we have been looking forward to.


  02/09/2011
  Apparently we were a little hard on the map makers yesterday, as we have learned that the tarmac road we should have been on was washed away in the floods in March this year.
  So too was Fitzroy Crossing severely affected by the same floods. Fitzroy is where we are right now, some 260K’s east of Derby on a very nice grassy campsite. Well, mostly grass, the rest is sand left after the floods receded. Now it needs re seeding. From here there is a trip we can do up the river to the Geikie Gorge we are definitely going to see it as it’s by boat. It goes tomorrow and there is no sign of rain until December.

  03/09/2011
  Up for an early start and a 20K drive to catch the boat for our trip up the Fitzroy River and through the Geikie Gorge. There were just 14 of us on the boat plus the skipper/ tour guide who gave a very informative commentary as we cruised along. Geikie is not the most spectacular gorge we have seen but was excellent value. We enjoyed looking at the limestone rock formations which have been  shaped by rain and flood water over millions of years.  We loved watching the tiny fairy martins flitting in and out of their nests which are stuck precariously under overhanging rocks. Fairy martins build mud nests like our house martins, except their nests are bottle shaped with the neck being the entrance.  Most of all we were impressed by the crocodiles, there are hundreds of them and we saw dozens. These are fresh water crocs, much smaller than the salties and generally harmless, unless you are on the croc hit list, which humans aren’t. They grow to up to 3 metres but those are few, mostly they are about 2metres and all the ones we saw were smaller.  ( Photos to follow)
   Fitzroy is Aborigine territory and there are several communities dotted around.  We saw several aborigenes making their way by foot or taxi for afternoon drinks at the Old Fitzroy Crossing Inn.  The pub has been decorated by local indigenous artists. We would have loved to have gone in for a beer but we’d only just had breakfast.  Back to the camp and a dip in the pool  ------- all in all a very interesting day.

  04/09/2011
  Just lurched 300K’s east from one swimming pool to another. That’s about all there is to say about Halls Creek., which is where we are now. It was notorious just a couple of years ago  for having a problem with drink and Indigenous people, and the authorities closed down all the alcohol outlets, making it a dry town. Not sure what the situation is now as we are in the same compound, sorry, caravan park, we stayed in in 2009 with it’s razor wired topped fence. Whether that’s to stop us escaping to mix with the Indigenous or stop them getting in to pinch our grog, we don’t know. Only here for a night.